RIM's BB10 has been a hell of a long time coming. But the company has finally pinned down a launch date for the new OS: it will officially enter into the world on January 30th next year.

The new software is pretty much make-or-break for RIM, whose fortunes have been failing of recent time. CEO Thorsten Heins, however, promises great things:

In building BlackBerry 10, we set out to create a truly unique mobile computing experience that constantly adapts to your needs. Our team has been working tirelessly to bring our customers innovative features combined with a best in class browser, a rich application ecosystem, and cutting-edge multimedia capabilities. All of this will be integrated into a user experience – the BlackBerry Flow – that is unlike any smartphone on the market today.

It does, of course, remain to be seen whether the new operating system can right RIM's problems, or whether the phones that will shepherd it can keep up with the strong design advancements made by Apple and Samsung recently. If it looks anything like this, don't count on it. [RIM]